"Serbia Doesn't Encourage Mass Tourism?

While Serbia welcomes tourists, it doesn't encourage mass tourism - such a paradoxical opinion has been voiced on the shores of foggy Albion. The British BBC has placed Serbia among the four places in the world with the best attitude towards tourists. And at the same time, according to this news agency, "Serbia is collaborating with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council on developing projects that do not encourage mass tourism...".

Indeed, Serbia has recently changed its tourism development strategy. Instead of focusing on Belgrade, the most famous destination for foreigners, they have been actively inviting foreign guests to small towns and rural areas. To improve the infrastructure and economy of local regions, attract tourists to mountainous areas and remote health resorts, in February 2024, the Ministry of Tourism and Youth decided to allocate additional funds. The corresponding decree detailed the "conditions, methods of allocation and use of incentive funds for the development of rural tourism and hospitality in the Republic of Serbia."

And the results were not long in coming. At the end of summer 2024, the Minister of Tourism and Youth of Serbia, Husein Memic, noted: "Now we can already boast of other places that are becoming attractive to foreigners. In our resorts, in the first seven months of this year, there were 12.5% more foreign tourists than in the same period last year, and in mountain centers, there were 35.4% more."

Today, Serbia is becoming a tourist destination where, in addition to the capital, foreigners are increasingly staying at resorts within the country. "The ministry's investments in tourist destinations throughout Serbia are already paying off, and Serbia undoubtedly has a lot to offer," said Husein Memic. He added that Belgrade still remains at the top of the list of the most visited places in the country. Which speaks not so much of a rejection of mass tourism, but rather of a more even distribution of tourist flows across the country.